Australian Open: Murray ire raises player welfare questions

After injury forced the departure of Rafael Nadal and local hope Nick Kyrgios, the Australian Open should have been grateful for the sort of stirring comeback story Andy Murray specializes in. 

But the Scottish veteran's win from two sets down against Australia's Thanasi Kokkinakis in the second round on Thursday has been lost amid talk of toilet breaks and timings.

Murray's request to use the bathroom in the latter stages of the longest match of his long career (5 hours and 45 minutes) was denied, leading Murray to express his frustration at the chair umpire.

"It's a joke! We're out here till f***ing 4 a.m. and we're not allowed to take a piss," the former grand slam champion and Olympic gold medallist complained.

Toilet breaks in tennis have become a source of controversy in recent years, with Murray very much involved. The ATP and WTA, the organizations that run most tournaments outside of the grand slams, changed their rules last year. They now state players can take just one toilet break in a normal three-set game (or two in a five-setter) and each break can last a maximum of three minutes.

Players can only use the bathroom at the end of a set and can claim an additional two minutes for a "change of attire." Murray was denied a toilet break after the fourth set and the match eventually finished at 4:08 a.m. local time.

Those rules were introduced after a controversial match between Murray and Greek player Stefanos Tsitsipas at the 2021 US Open. Tsitsipas was accused of cheating by the Scot after his opponent had a series of lengthy toilet breaks and medical time-outs: "Fact of the day. It takes Stefanos Tsitipas twice as long to go the bathroom as it takes Jeff Bazosto fly into space. Interesting," Murray tweeted at the time.

Scheduling a bone of contention

It wasn't just bathroom breaks that attracted Murray's ire on Thursday. "Finishing at 4 a.m. isn't ideal. Because I don't know who it's beneficial for," he said afterward. "A match like that, and we come here after the match and we're discussing the time rather than it being an epic Murray-Kokkinakis match, it ends in a bit of a farce.

"Amazingly people stayed until the end. I really appreciate people doing that, creating an atmosphere for us at the end. Some people need to work the following day and everything. If my child was a ball kid for a tournament, they're coming home at five in the morning, as a parent, I'm snapping at that.

"It's not beneficial for them. It's not beneficial for the umpires, the officials. I don't think it's amazing for the fans. It's not good for the players."

While Murray's argument was supported by his brother, and doubles grand slam winner, Jamie, former tennis great Martina Navratilova and a host of other players, Tsitsipas, perhaps playfully, suggested that such unusual circumstances made it memorable.

"There's a great story behind this match, and it's going to be remembered,'' he said on Friday. "I do remember very vividly, very well, the match that Baghdatis played with [Lleyton] Hewitt [the longest match in tournament history]. It's somewhere back inside my mind ... it is definitely a very magical moment, for sure."

TV interests over player welfare?

Therein, perhaps, lies the main reason why tennis, and this tournament in particular, often goes on until hours inconceivable for almost any other sport. TV audiences and broadcasters are vital to the sport's health. This is who it benefits. 

With Murray's matches drawing significant viewing figures in the UK, and a similar story for other Europeans, there is an appetite to get those matches played at a time friendly to European viewers. In other words, the last match of the day. Tournament organizer Craig Tiley was robust in defense of the tournament scheduling.

"You would expect from 7 p.m. to 12 p.m. [the evening session] in that five-hour window, you would get two matches," he told Australian broadcaster Channel Nine. "We also have to protect the matches. If you just put one match at night and there's an injury, you don't have anything for fans or broadcasters. 

"At this point there is no need to alter the schedule," he added. "We always look at it when we do the debrief like we do every year, we've had long matches before, at this point we've got to fit the matches into the 14 days so you don't have many options."

Weather events have played a part in condensing this year's tournament but games are still routinely played in extreme temperatures and at extreme times in Melbourne. With Murray and other players clearly starting to resent such decisions, Tiley may be forced to consider player welfare and not just financial rewards. 

Edited by Matt Ford